INTEGRATING GOAL PROGRAMMING IN BIOMASS PROCUREMENT FOR BIO-ENERGY VALUE CHAINS

Goal programming was used to analyze biomass procurement value chains in the case of competing goals for power plants. One cost and six quality goals, namely moisture and ash contents and thermal values of each of two biomass types, were selected. Four model scenarios were investigated: i) benchmark total cost and upper bounds of the mean values of the six biomass properties (Initial Goals), ii) relaxing the quality goals by 10% from the Initial Goals scenario, iii) relaxing the quality goals by 20% from the Initial Goals scenario, and iv) all goals as in Initial Goals except that the Atikokan Generating Station (AGS) is supplied with only unutilized or underutilized biomass. Varying degrees of increase in total costs as well as costs for each power plant compared to the benchmark costs were observed for the other scenarios. The highest increase in total cost (7.54%) was observed for the scenario in which the AGS plant uses only unutilized or underutilized biomass.